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Monday, April 13, 2015

SLAM!

Oh how I love a little competitive fun. Have you ever heard of an App Slam? It's a friendly sharing of favorite apps followed by a vote to see which app gets the most votes.Having an App Slam is a great way to have students guide and personalize their own learning and it also incorporates a lot of creative thinking and technology.Here is how it works:Students (or teachers) choose an app that they think is a winner.They then create a demonstration (video, live demo, example or other)

The demo slam

is short (1-3 minutes) in length,

highlights the features of the app,

demonstrates how to use the app, and

ends with the word SLAM.

Here is a Thinglink with some awesome examples of App Slams:

and here is a popular App Slam from two young ladies who are showing how amazing Google Translate is:

So as you can see, the idea is not just to share an app, but to do it creatively and convincingly.

In a classroom or school, teachers could use a tournament bracket creator such as this one to organize the app slam. For voting on the apps, teachers could use Poll Everywhere or Plickers to collect the student's votes.

What I love about App Slams is that students demonstrate how an application can be used to help solve a problem or take learning to another level.

I highly recommend having a friendly App Slam with your students or even between educators to grow awareness of the amazing apps that are out there.